The FCC claimed earlier this month that the comment system by which people can weigh in on the proposal to kill net neutrality had been on the receiving end of a distributed denial-of-service attack. Today, a group of Senators asked that the FBI look into it. Read More
If you want to re-imagine cities, you’ll likely work with city government. Sometimes this means city governments will your customer, but far more often founders will encounter an unfamiliar relationship that includes policy, regulations and enforcement. There are great resources to guide founders through all aspects of customer discovery, but there aren’t yet great frameworks… Read More
Were you one of the many parents surprised to find hundreds of dollars’ worth of Smurfberries charged to your card a few years back? Amazon’s lax in-app purchasing requirements let kids all over the country buy coins and crystals to their hearts’ content, something the FTC frowned on. News that refunds would be available soon broke in April, and the time has come at last. Read More
It’s been a banner year for The Pokémon Company: Pokémon GO was a global phenomenon and the latest full-on Pokégame for the 3DS sold very well indeed. One would expect the company to be doing well financially — perhaps even doubling or tripling last year’s profits. Well, apparently it quinvigintupled them, which is to say multiplied by 25 times. (I had to look it up.) Read More
On Wednesday, an appellate court shot down Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht’s effort to avoid spending the rest of his life behind bars. Two years ago, Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison for his role in running the dark web exchange, best known as a once-thriving online marketplace for drug transactions. Ulbricht was sentenced in 2015 after a court found that he operated Silk Road… Read More
Mary Meeker’s latest Internet Trends Report, out today, was full of insights on how tech is shaping our future — including now in healthcare. This was the first year Meeker included healthcare in her report and it shows just how much of a role tech is going to play in improving our lives going forward. Here are a few key insights from the report. Read More
As rumors swirl around President Trump’s decision to remain or withdraw from international climate accords, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had some choice words for the president from the stage of the Code Conference on Wednesday in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Read More
There’s always been talk about how drones could improve the emissions situation produced by our truck-based delivery infrastructure. But you have to look into these things. A new study from University of Washington researchers indicates that drone delivery may indeed lead to a lower carbon footprint — if it’s done properly. Read More
Some of the most annoying parts of today’s virtual reality hardware are all the wires and the sensors needed to accurately track the headset. With all-in-ones, all of that hardware has to find its way into the headset and track your location in a low-power way. Today, Occipital is showing off a tracking platform optimized for all-in-one headsets that will allow users to traverse… Read More
Hillary Clinton appeared onstage at Code Conference on Wednesday in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. and reflected on why she lost the U.S. 2016 presidential election. Unsurprisingly, the widespread coverage of her unsecured email usage was a sour point. Read More
In an interview that quickly turned into an election post-mortem, Hillary Clinton slammed the Democratic National Committee’s poor data for playing a role in her lost bid for the U.S. presidency. Read More
Andy Rubin’s appearance at the Code Conference last night went a ways toward answering some lingering questions about his new company, Essential. But the conversation primarily centered around the startup’s upcoming phone — Rubin left the dialogue around the company’s take on a smart phone hub, Home, intentionally vague. But the CEO did take the opportunity to… Read More
Like Box’s last quarterly check-in, the company once again touted that it had free cash flow in the first quarter this year as part of its Q1 earnings report today — a signal that Wall Street may be looking for as a barometer of its future health as a company. Read More
Here are the must-read stats about what’s happening with internet adoption, smartphones, ads, e-commerce, entertainment, gaming, enterprise healthcare, China, India and startups. We’ve picked the most important slides from legendary Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker’s massive 355-page 2017 Internet Trends report, deciphered the complex data and explained why… Read More
What does Automattic – a technology company, MIT Center for Civic Media – a research powerhouse, and The Mash-Up Americans – my media firm, have in common? We’re all working together to have honest conversations, build empathy, and help make the world a more inclusive and compassionate place. In our second Design and Exclusion conversation, I was lucky enough to talk… Read More
Business travelers between the U.S. and Europe can breathe a small sigh of relief and clutch their laptops a little closer — for now. Following a call between Secretary John Kelly and defense leads in Europe, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a statement clarifying that it would not seek to ban laptops from the cabin on commercial flights from Europe at this time. Read More
For the past few years, the Los Angeles Auto Show has hosted the Top Ten Automotive Startups competition. The event is now open for submissions through July 15, so if you’ve got an automotive app, service or cool bit of tech, now’s your chance. Read More
You know design is having its moment when IBM, the stodgy normcore dad of the tech industry, gets in on the action. In the last five years, Big Blue has grown its designer to developer hiring target from 1:72 to 1:9. It’s not the only one — companies across Silicon Valley are recruiting far more designers than ever before. I’ve been hearing about this hiring crunch for… Read More
If you’ve ever needed to take out a mortgage or a loan for your business, you probably know how difficult it is to find the right terms or borrower to work with. Magilla Loans is seeking to change that by providing a search engine designed to connect borrowers with banks that might want to lend them money. Read More
But it’s weird not because it wasn’t designed in-house, and instead was handled by partner TCL; it’s weird because it’s strangely successful at pulling off an odd balancing act of combining modern functionality with the same kind of retro appeal Fujifilm has managed to infuse throughout their mirrorless camera lineup, with nostalgia for the earliest days of the… Read More
